Flamingsteel.com

 Steel Sculpture by Roy Mackey 

Roy Mackey

604-269-3500

Email

 Steel sculpture ~ artwork

all made from brand new steel

NEWZ FLASHES!!! 

My Latest Blog Post..

You Missed the Tax Deadline... Dec 1st...

itz yor money...

 Anyway....

Thanks for winging by my site!!

Park your surfboard and stay awhile.

Scroll down for a quick look and/or click on pictures for more of the same 

All My Art Work

Here is a fairly complete list of all the artwork that I have done over the last 100 years or so. It starts from my most recent and works back. Don't click here if you have a dial up internet connection!!

New Stainless Series

 I started doing these steel "paintings" back in 1995. Then I just used mild steel. Now that I can finally afford stainless steel I have been using it. These works really create a sense of reflective movement in the place.

Chair Series

This is one from my series of chairs. These are all made from 20 gage sheet steel. They are hollow inside with no armature and thus are a lot lighter than they first appear.

Modified Hammer Series

This is one from my series of modified hammers. So far I have done around forty or so. Some have not yet been photographed.

Small Art Series

Here is a collection of my smaller art and pocket sculpture. Almost all my key chains in this series are hollow and rattle when shaken. I did a ton of the plain steel ones while living in Nanaimo. Most now are likely in landfills throughout the country and impossible to find. 

Candle Holder Series

Here is a piece from my presently ongoing series of candle holders. These junk candle holders are all made from perfectly good stuff. They are a very reasonable way to score a signed, dated and documented piece of my artwork on the cheap.

Well not much below this point... probably time you got back to work... hey isn't that you wife, husband or partner calling? Well no big deal not much intelligent below this point anyway.

Well take here see you again!!!

BACK TO THE TOP 

 You were warned...

Haven't had enough I see or maybe just can't sleep.  Well either way thanks for stopping by!!! Don't forget if you need a break from the rat race and hyperness of modern life then you may want to score one of my books. The breath of fresh air will recharge you.

www.burninggrass.com

Quick Flash...

Score my business card for only $20. ??!!!

Click here for more details!! 

"Note... very limited supply"

September 29/2010           NEWS FLASH....

Anyone out there got a pre 1966 4dr car they want to sell?  

   If so I am looking for something. Preferably something cheap and in original condition. I don't have time or the place for a basket case. If my next bank job goes over well I will even have cash. If you have a pic you could email that would be great. Something like this turn-key driver below would be perfect! This one only smokes on Sunday.  

How to burn money....

     Think about it… almost every "moveable" thing you buy other than gold, silver, art and antiques will be in the landfill well before you die. In fact most within two or three years. It will also depreciate to almost nothing within the first few days or years of purchase. What little worth your big screen TV has, the day after you buy it, is quickly diminished by the new "bigger" screen tv the moment it comes out. Consumables are not only expensive but become worthless and tacky junk in such a short time. Have you ever wondered why you are not rich by now? How could you if every dime you spend is destined to end up in the landfill or become worthless in such a short time. This might also explain why the rich spend so much money on gold, silver, art and antiques... 

continue reading...

Warehouse Space Needed

     Hey anyone out there know of a large warehouse space for rent... around 2000 to 5000 sq ft for $1200. a month range?.... ok maybe a little more. Needs to have 16 ft ceilings and smooth cement floor. If so let me know. If all goes well I might be setting up production on my time machines. We might also consider a far smaller space for storage.  

And on one last final note... 

      In order to dispell the myths going around that I don't have a clue when it comes to welding I made up this post card. Drill bits are a lot harder to weld that it would seem. You can pretty well see I got a nice bead on this one and now don't have to throw it out.

Get on my Mailing List

     Hey if you actually like the work here and want to get on my exclusive mailing list fill out the form below. Mostly just your email and first name. You will get one of those hassley emails asking you to confirm. Which even though they are a pain they do keep people from signing you up to weird email lists like this one without you knowing.

     My email newsletter is nothing more than a boring and tedius reminder that I am so far still alive and making more weird stuff. I sometimes announce things like up coming shows or open studio events also. Along with other interesting and long winded tid bits. Because they are a lot of work and I am lazy they rarely get sent out more than once a month and usually about once every two months or more. So don't worry about having daily emails from me. Getting off the list is as easy as one click on a link at the bottom of every email. Clean fast easy and no one knows a thing. Apparently my family is really excited about this option.

To get on my mailing list fill out this first form here...

To send your comments and oppinions:

Email Me

NOTE: It now appears that my email has won... I can no longer keep up with replies. I would have to live on the computer non stop to likely even catch up. I do read everything though and really appreaciate all your comments good or bad!!! If things do slow down or I ever get my disorganized life sorted out things might  change but for now its not looking good. A big thanks though in advance for your comments just the same!!! In the meantime I will reply to all that I can.

      You know my therapist is a real nut bar. I am not even sure why I see him all the time. Last time he came by you should have seen him dancing around cursing and swearing. Then to top it off he took a swing at me. Luckily my years of death stare Kung Fu paid off and I took evasive action. 

     He started raving about how I was blowing all my sessions with him by not following what I was learning. Sure I signed a waiver allowing him to smack me if I packed any more junk home but hey this was not junk!! When was the last time you saw a weigh scale like this one?

     Anyway I managed to calm him down as he started to see the value here. This was one real gem.

      I picked this beauty up off a local businessman who was shutting down his business. I was going to offer him less when I bought it but luckily I never. Turns out he was from Saskatchewan. Not sure if you know much about those Saskatchewan types or not but they are tough and sharp. Not only that they live forever!! This guy was over 80 and I tell you I would not want to be in the ring with him... death stare Kung Fu or not!! My Dad always told me to watch out for them since men from out there don't grow old they just grow tougher and smarter. Man this guy was obvious proof of that!!

     Either way thanks to his kind and generous demeanor he gave me a hell of a deal. So along with some great filing cabinets and other junk home it came with us.  This scale is a prime example of stuff made by men with pride and commitment to quality you just don't see any more. A thing of beauty that still works like new.... 80 or more years later!!!!

___________

 Junk candle holders made from good useable stuff !!!  

     I guess I should let everyone know that the price on these is now $125. each After a little while longer they will no longer be for sale. Actually the mothership should be here by then so I am taking them with me. Thus if you want one speed will be of the essence. In other words snooze and you looze. These are a great deal if you are looking for a signed, dated and documented piece of my work for cheap. These are all one of a kind magical pieces of art.

Price... yes only... $125. each!!! (The very odd one is priced higher)

See Here

There are presently over 170 available.

give or take a few... 

 Most of these have a very cool feel to them when you hold them.

Something you have to feel to appreciate.

If you want to grab one feel free to phone anytime.

Good luck picking out though...

604-269-3500 

     Two things to learn from this picture... first icing is not just for cakes... and wonderbars make a great breakfast when served with a hot cup of black coffee... not shown.

Remember point #1. God invented fruit to tide us over until we could invent chocolate bars!!!

Remember point #2. Stressed is desserts spelled backwards!!!

Remember point #3. Always eat your dessert first... the world could end any minute and it would go to waste!!!

Remember point #4. Cake is always an easy and fast breakfast. Often with less sugar than normal breakfast cereal!!

Remember point #5. Too much candy will kill you... but then again too much life will kill you also!!!

Remember point #6. Always keep extra icing on hand for a fast and easy dose of sugar. Taken with black coffee makes a very energizing, easy to digest breakfast.

 ____________

Note: all the free junk is right at the bottom of this page.

     Herez my latest junk find. A genuine 1956 Delta Unisaw. A big thanks to Erik for helping me find the year of this beast. Luckily it has the original motor and even rarer is the cast iron motor cover and blade guard!! Runs smooth as butter. I will probably attach a band aid kit to the side if I plan to use it much. It was a little dirtier than this but I cleaned it up before taking these shots. Though these saws look sweet when smothered in fresh make-up I prefer the natural and original patina. Evidence of its history and age. At this rate I expect this thing will be wore out by around 3010. By then I am going to be doing something different anywayz.

     Though I rarely talk about it I have always had a life long dream to work in the corporate world. I figured if I got into some kind of easy money career like art it would be perfect. My plan is to make enough money so that I can finally go to school, become a corporate lawyer and move to New York. I am pretty sure by the time this saw is wore out I should have enough money saved. After that it will easy street, eating bagels and cream cheese every day!!!

     Here might be some information for those who are concerned about their diets. I read somewhere that it is good to eat foods from all color groups. It sounded good to me though I did not read the whole book... actually I just looked at the pictures but kinda got the point anyway. Here is a meal from the brown catagory. If you notice the donuts are brown, the coffee though darker is also brown, then of course the caramel sauce for the donuts is also brown. Man it was a quick energy meal to wake up to. I really think there is something to this food color thing. To make it even better I made sure it was "fat free" coffee. The donuts did not have the sugary coating, and the caramel sauce was low in fat! Delicious and apparently good for you. I know I was buzzing with energy. I might just check into this food color thing some more.

     Ok this was kind of strange... Marta and I were having another great day in paradise when we decided that we needed more junk food to eat. It was decided we would take the Benz since it was closer than the truck and neither of us felt like walking too far just to get candy. Well while we were getting strapped in I happened to notice the milage was right on the 100,000 mark!!! Wow talk about the odds of it hitting that mark right when we parked it!!! The last time we drove it was out to the airport to pick up my latest mission papers from the CIA but I never noticed the milage then. I did know it was getting close. Kind of strange. The first thing I thought was it must be our lucky day and maybe we should send some packages off to more galleries!!! Marta then had a better idea and said lets wish for a sale at holocostco on chocolate bars. We are going to run out there tomorrow and see.

Hey Everyone...

     Just curious if there is even one person out there, who lives in Vancouver and uses Roger's rocket hub, that has something good to say about it???? All I get from google searches is frustrated people that say it is really slow and not even slightly near the "vaguely" advertised claims. It would have a lot of advantages for us here at the studio but it is so hard to believe todays "liar marketing"  techniques thus word of mouth is all you can trust. There must be someone out there that likes it...

     Here is a really weird thing. Yes it appears to be just an antique hand saw with a cast iron handle. A simple sort of thing really but if you held on to it you would see what I mean. This thing feels absolutely incredible in your hand!!! I have never held a saw that felt so good. It is hard to believe how well it fits your hand. The strange thing is you will never find a saw in any store today that feels this good. I wonder why after all the big new word in marketing these last few years has been Ergonomic. We are in the middle of the high tech age and almost nothing comes even close to feeling as good as this one does. Whatz wrong with this picture? Hard to say but if you are by my studio sometime and want to hold this saw you can for a toonie. It will be the best two bucks you ever spent. I plan on taking this saw to Mexico next time. That way when I am lying there in the sun nursing that margarita in one hand I can have this saw in the other hand for the perfect Zen state!!!

     Herez Sweetie, my blue and gold macaw... bit of a mean beast to say the least. If she can reach you then you need band aids for sure but more likely surgery. If you don't believe me you will after you see how she saws up wood like it was cake!! Of course she is real nice to me but then she has had 28 years to get used to me. She loves to travel, bite, eat peanuts, and ride harleys... trouble is I sold my last one so shez been out of luck. She still has not forgiven me for that move. Eventually I will buy her another one. This link below will give you a couple of clues on how to keep your parrot alive longer than a lot of pet stores might want..... 

http://www.flamingsteel.com/me-blogging-the-dog/how-to-kill-your-parrot  

     Here is one of my latest aquistions. A mid fifties Dewalt radial arm saw. I was not really looking for one of these but saw this one advertised and thought I should at least look at it. At first look I was not that impressed but as I looked at it more I could see these are interesting beasts. It orginally belonged to the sellers grandfather who along with him kept it in near mint condition. Probably not that easy to find something like this again I thought. So considering I had previously noticed what appeared to be my ship on the horizon I offered him the last of my food money for next month. Just as he was about to call the cops on me I asked for his counter offer. Fortunately for me he was a very generous type and countered with an easy offer. Thus thanks to some cheapskating on my part and generosity on his a deal was made. Now that I have had a chance to take a good look at it I think it is going to be a great addition to my vintage tool collection that will actually get a lot of use. On top of that since we have no more food money I could set it up in the kitchen right on top of the stove!!! To read more about this saw click here and then scroll down:

http://www.flamingsteel.com/my-vintage-tool-collection.php   

     Check out this weld... not the best but I was using a new/old torch I just bought. A vintage Meco Aviator Jet. What a sweet beast to weld with and fits your hand like a glove. This shot is a zoom in with a normal pencil for reference. Pretty thin weld bead in fact well under 1/16th of an inch. I will be posting my dangerous, mackey mouse five torch welding set up shortly. Works like a dang though...

     Here is one of my copper on steel pieces. This one is titled "Seven Rings" Actually the base is separate from the piece. I have done a few of these pieces and finally got some pics of them. 48 x 36 x 2"

     Here is a shot of my latest gem. A genuine mid fifties 14" Beaver Band Saw! For it's age this one has been kept in pristine condition. A big thanks to Alan for this one. His dad originally bought it around 1955 or so. He got it after his dad was no longer using it and now I picked it up. Luckily for me Alan was reasonable with the price and let me hauler away for my counter offer. After a little clean-up I dug out the bandaids and tried it out. I am not much of a woodworker but sure seems to cut nice to me. In fact I am thinking of keeping it over by the fridge for cutting bread with!! Not sure Marta would go along with that though after all it is kind of noisy. A little wood dust on the white bread might even give it a little nutrition... or at least fiber anyway. The cool thing about this one is it has the original cast iron base legs with the beaver emblem embossed in them.

     Here is another classic find we just picked up. I was looking for something to sleep on when I am working in my welding area and bumped into this one. It's actually a very odd chair. After getting it home and taking a close look the attention to detail is amazing. All the welds were polished before the plating went on. The chrome is definately not the accountant approved "tissue plate"  they normally do these days. You can tell by the "wet"  feel real chrome plating has. This chair not only reclines to almost horizontal it also folds up for easy storage!! It is also very comfortable. I don't have any clue as to how old it is but either way it is a real gem. Not sure I want to use it in my welding area now. Goes nice with the rest of our junk though so it is definately a keeper. If you have any ideas as to who and when this was made would love to hear them.

Remember folks...

The lord may givith but it's the landfill that

takith away!!!

Now that I finally have a suggestion box

I am always open to new ideas etc.

I fished this one out of a dumpster out behind the Telus building. It had been overheated too many times so the safety kickout switch was stuck. Once I fixed that it worked like new.

     You know I sometimes forget how sweet it is having a robotic cnc plasma table in my studio. Even though I almost never use it for my art it is still one sweet machine. This is a close up of a piece of ten gage hot rolled plate right off the machine prior to clean-up!!! They take a little figuring to get working just right every time but once you do... I cut a lot of brackets mounts and plates around my studio which is not only fun but sure cuts out the hard labor. Sure they cost a lot of beer but are a hell of a lot more fun that heading off to the washroom all the time!!  : ) There are a lot of different brands out there but I am sold on ...

 www.plasmaCam.com

     Here is a shot of a tricky little weld I recently did for a friend of mine. I welded a small nut to the head of a machine screw. Luckily I only had to do it once which surprised the hell out of me. This is one of the reasons I am such a fan of tig welding over mig. There is so much more versitility with tig. Mind you it is not the end all be all but if you are on a budget and can't buy both then I would take a tig any day. Just my two bits....

     Well just when I decide to not buy any more vintage tools along comes another must have. This one is a 1947ish Delta Milwaukee. They kept this same design for years it appears but th older ones have a few differences. This one is incredible to hear running. Sounds almost like a sewing machine. The seller was a decent guy with an interesting life story. Trouble is he was asking a fair price.... fair is always over my budget... life of an artist... So I head faked him with the "This money was supposed to pay for my grandmothers face lift to help spark her modeling career" story. Well that didn't budge him an inch. I tried the "well here goes next months food money" story. Still no luck. So then I switched my strategy and just grabbed it for his asking price. Hell I could always deal with Marta later. Well he took the cash I took the tool and we both were happy. Because it had the original hard to find light and the original stand and also the belt guard I was sold. It has a couple of little uglies but nothing serious so far anyway. Cuts like a dream.  Oh and this is a one hundred percent "plastic free" tool.

Did you know that no man... or woman for that matter has ever gone into a hardware store wanting a drill bit.

What they really wanted was a hole

!!!  FREE STUFF  !!!

NOW GETS EVEN EASIER 

     OK I am finally going to make the free stuff even easier!!! Yes it is true. I am going to start listing any new free stuff here at the very bottom of my home page. For a couple of reasons actually. The first to make it easier for me. The second is to give you a chance at a free bonus for actually making it all the way down to the bottom of this page!! Thus in the future I will list free stuff here. If you see something here listed for free... and can come by right away to pick it up then phone me and let me know. If you can't pick it up until tomorrow... then phone me tomorrow! If it is something I state I am willing to mail out then feel free to phone me anytime. After the free stuff is gone I will then move it over to the Free Stuff Taken page. Maybe for any "American Nosepicker" types out there that like to dig around a bit I might just lop the odd thing in the Free Stuff Taken page.

Oh and don't forget to read the Free Stuff Rules which are also on the Free Stuff Taken page!!!

TAKEN !!!     by Magalie Merciez of Edmonton which I think is a part of Canada... dec/16/2011  

FREE MONEY!!!      Here is another free one of those old and ugly two dollar bills I picked up. There is only one catch to this one... you have to live outside of BC. Yes as long as you live somewhere else in North America, could use or even want this old two buck bill, then drop me an email with your mailing address and I will poper in the mail that day! No questions asked!! These are a hot collectors item here in Canada. In fact I just met a guy five years ago who was looking for one. You might even get a buck fifty for it if you put it on eBay. What you do with it is up to you but you better be quick though. I have already had two people this year, outside of BC visit my site. This sucker will likely be long gone by spring. This is just my way of saying to all the other provinces that most British Columbian's still want you all to be part of Canada. I am also hoping our President hears this message. June/16/2011 

     FREE !!!     Here is an old vintage General Electric am tube radio in very good shape for the year. Plugged it in and it scratched out some noise here and there so likely needs a tune up by someone in the know. A real gem if you collect useless junk like this. If so you might want to act fast as I have noticed there are a lot of other idiots out there who collect these old pigs besides me and maybe you...     July 31, 2011 based on how long it has been here so far... apparently not...

      FREE !!!      Here is a really useless score for.... of all things... FREE. A vintage scroll saw in really good shape. Strange I know as who the hell would want this anyway. Well no one unless they needed it and only had a butter knife. Butter knives may be handy but could never do that this sucker can. God knows how old it is but if you like classic old, made to last junk then give me a call. Unfortunately I am too busy to ship this one so you will have to stop by to grab it. Might be a good thing to give your unemployed kid for Christmas. Would give him something to do for a change and maybe even get him off the crack for also.   Dec/6/2011

Every day for an artist is like a holiday for normal hard working people....

Every payday for normal hardworking people is like a holiday to artists....

Finally you made it... Thanks for stopping by!!!

 now...

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